Boundless
by Aisasmith
Summary: After waking up in a whole new country, Lia is told that she lost her memories. having no ways to retrieve her memories, Lia decides to restart her life. She probably never was anyone extra-ordinary, and she never will be. So, a simple and happy life, she decides. Just when she decides to settle down, her life starts coming back to her. And she doesn't know what to do anymore.
1. Chapter 1

"Constantia."

Miss Aleron pronounced, and the whole class pronounced after her. Lia quietly sunk down in her seat at the back of the class. It's only been a month she came here. It's still so new to her. "The smaller a system is, the less time it takes to get used to it." She thought to herself. If that was true, it shouldn't take her this long to get used to the school. But then again, this was a whole new country, she didn't know anyone here.

As if it would help even if she knew anyone. With her memory gone, she barely remembered the basic things- how to eat, read and language. She wondered if she had family, friends. She wondered if they knew she was here, or if she ran away. Were they looking for her? There was no point thinking about it if she couldn't do anything.

"Now now, isn't that my most favourite student, Lexie." Miss Aleron said with a smile as Lexie went up to volunteer for the demonstration. Miss Aleron was pretty nice. Everyone liked her. Lia didn't particularly like her, but everyone craved attention. Lia was no different. She too, wished that she could be someone's favorite, be it student, daughter, sister- anything. At least that would take the loneliness away. It was pretty pathetic, she felt. But losing memories could make you into a pathetic person in no time at all. She wondered what kind of a person she was, then snapped back at herself. "You keep thinking like this, and you'll never adjust to your new life." She remembered what her doctor had said when they released her from the hospital. She was the only person who seemed to care for her genuinely. But then again, she's a doctor. She wouldn't be one if she couldn't convince her patients that she cared for them. She had told Lia that she shows no possibility of regaining her memories. Her alece was wiped clean. She seemed horrified at the idea, so it must be something pretty horrible to do to someone. Dr. Anna couldn't think of a reason as to why someone would do that to anyone at all. When she asked what wiping an alece clean meant, Dr. Anna told her that alece contained all spiritual particles- from life force to our emotions. If someone loses their memories, they still remember the feel of an incident, and their instincts can guide them towards remembering. That's because the alece keeps the emotional record of incidents, while brain keeps the imagery of it. With advanced technologies, it is possible to regain memories from alece particle even when it is one from the brain. The process is rigorous, so it is not for general healthcare. But in her case, even that wasn't possible, because her alece was like a newborn babies, with no record. She said it should be a miracle that she is still alive, because alece particles are highly sensitive, and even the lightest touch to them could cause unimaginable pain.

Lia sighed. She had been sighing a lot these days. One of the first things she realized about herself was that she was too ordinary. Like earlier, she craved attention, got angry without reason. Another thing she realized was that she was the type of person she least liked. She admired Lexie so much. Besides being talented, she was always composed and in control. And people would think that being calm and quiet would make her introverted. But she was so energetic at the same time. Lia desperately wished she was like her.

Lia had to laugh. She didn't even know what her favourite colour was. And she wanted to be a whole new person?

The bell rang in the middle of Lexie's demonstration of applying the rule. Some of the students ran out, and some stayed to watch her finish the application. Lia silently walked out the backdoor. Because given her ordinary personality, she probably wasn't doing anything special with her life before the memory loss. And of course she had no chance of doing it now. Not when she didn't even know who she was.

(Somewhere back in time)

"Are you freaking kidding me? He's so hot!" Lia whispered to Iris. Iris rolled her eyes, "You don't have to drool over every guy you see, you know." Lia faked sadness, "I wouldn't if I had a boyfriend like you." "See? This is exactly why you don't have one." Iris said, then walked away. Serah watched Lia being stupid from a distance and smiled. It's been 2 years since they started at the academy, and Lia's been like this since the beginning. Clumsy, careless and ugly. Serah had to laugh. She thought Lia would turn out to be a better person once she got to know her. But no. Lia back then, and Lia right now- same deal. Same clumsiness, same dorkiness, same awkward social skills. She walked back to her room in the west wing. The classes were over. She needed to go back.

On her way to the cafeteria, Lia met Shauna. Shauna was busy being herself, which included being loud and enthusiastic in some miraculous way that did not annoy people. Lia decided to join in, though she had no idea what this was about, and knew that she will be hated for being loud. "C'mon guys, it's not too much. Volunteering for the tournament wouldn't kill you." she kept saying while she tried to convince everyone to join in for the annual tournament. Lia had to sigh. This girl. How did she always manage to land herself in the middle of these things? Lia wouldn't mind volunteering, in fact she liked it. But she was joining the tournament this year, they selected her. It was really hard to qualify for the annual ranking competition for the top school of the nation. But she made it somehow. "Got lucky", is how she puts it. Realizing that she couldn't be of any help here, she waved Shauna some encouragement to hang in there, and found herself a nice little seat beside the windows.

Lia had been hearing about the rules since the time she can remember. Rules are what defines us, rules are what defines everything, and keeps them from falling apart and merging into chaos. She hardly understood any of that stuff. She wondered if anyone did. All they had to do is remember that they must Never, with a capital N, go against the rules. There are professors studying more about the rules in universities, and new speculations on rules are always being invented. But who'd want to understand things that has no physical existence? They only study the rules people have discovered, and ways to use them to maintain the order. Lia used to think she understood order and chaos. Order was this building, where rules was the framework. Without the rules, order would collapse, and turn into a rubble, the most natural state of things, and that, is chaos. One of the first rules they teach at school is that chaos is the most natural state of the world. But chaos is just everything blending into one thing, so the separate existence of lives isn't possible by chaos. And that's why, according to textbooks, she had to defend the order.

Of course, there were people with less pain on the butt. People who accepted chaos. People who gave into darkness. Their powers were limitless, because there were no rules binding them. As all things tend to move to chaos, their powers require very less effort with huge impacts. On the other hand, Lia had to struggle, like everyone else, to provide the energy to keep everything from falling apart.

So why didn't she just turn to chaos? Well, turning into chaos certainly had its perks, but it destroyed the order of the body and mind. It destroyed the mind first. People turned into mindless killing machines in no time. The boundless power and freedom from the rules destroyed all natural ways of thinking. Disintegration of the body took longer.

Lia didn't really understand all these disintegration of mind and body. She only knew that she'd be ousted from the society, her friends, her life, if she ever turned to darkness. And with all her friends and family, what would she need endless powers for? She had no ambition of powers, she didn't want to rule over worlds. She just wanted a simple life, and a happy one.

Lia yawned sitting there as Shauna passed her, now trying to talk to everyone one-on-one and convince them. Lia couldn't wait to graduate from the school. With her marks, everyone said she could probably slip into administration, or the defense. But she had her mind set for the healing branches. Not because of all the excessive kindness flooding in her, but mostly because it paid well, and the living system amused her. It was the only place where chaos and order blended into each other and still worked perfectly. Everything that broke down worked to build something else.

But, most of all, she just wanted a simple life.

"I got you a date, girl." Iris walked in the room to discover Lia talking to Serah. Lia looked up and smiled. Her eyes lit up as soon as she realized what Iris said. "Who is it?" She asked. Iris shrugged, "does it matter? It's not you can be picky. Just don't freak him out and try to be nice for once." Iris clearly didn't like Serah, and it showed. But Serah just kept waiting for Lia to finish talking to Iris so that they could get back to their conversation. Lia looked back at Serah with all those sparkles in her eyes. "What?" Serah asked back, "It's fine if it's not Friday night. Shauna said she'd make time Friday night." Iris smiled, heavy sarcasm dripping off her face, "It's on Friday night. What? You guys dating each other or something? Homos! Why do you need to meet every week anyway? You guys do some team action or something?" Serah's frown deepened, but she didn't say anything. Lia laughed it off, "No need to be too sarcastic about it. I love you too, don't worry." Iris walked out with a disgusted expression on her face. "By the way," she stopped at the door again, "It's Jay. I don't know what it is, but one of the most wanted bachelors in the school want to meet you. So you better be nice about it. Don't show up like the dork you are." She left, smiling at Serah.

"She doesn't deserve your time, Serah." Lia said as she sat down, all signs of earlier sparkles gone. "Whatever. Don't tell me you're going though," She looked up at her. "I feel sorry for the any guy who even tries liking you." Lia laughed, "I should go. After all, he's one of the coolest bachelors in the whole school." Serah laughed as Lia mimicked Iris. "Not on Friday night. I'll talk to him to reschedule the date." Lia sat down saying. Serah stared at her for a while, "Reschedule what? The date with the hottest guy alive? Are you even planning to date this guy?" They both laughed at Serah's impression of Iris again. "By the way," Serah continued, "what are you going to do about Iris? She has been crossing decency lines these days." Lia Shrugged, "Like I care if she thinks I go around sleeping with other people or not. But you definitely should give her more attention, you know. She's getting so jealous." "Don't put it that way," Lia shook her head in disapproval, "it makes me sound like a person worth all that attention, when I'm not." Serah sighed, "You know, you should stop faking yourself. I don't know why you do it, but you should just accept it if you're not the kindest person at heart. Why try to act like one?" Lia pouted, "Who's faking it? I know I can't change the person I am, but I could at least try to make a nicer version of me." Serah stood up, "Do what you want. We're meeting on Friday. Handle your love life however you want, we'll start without you if you don't come."

Even after Serah left, Lia sat silent for a long time. She was getting too depressed these days, she concluded. She had to make sure that date happened, she told herself before falling asleep.

On Friday night, while walking down the alleys after her awkward date, Lia noticed Austin Wright coming out of a pub. She made her way through the crowds on the street. "Hey." She said, finally reaching him. Austin looked up and smiled seeing her, "So the fan girl appeared again. Do you make all your favourite celebrities wait a week to meet you, or am I being mistreated for being a small stage celebrity?" Austin said sarcastically. "I happen to have only one celebrity who knows of my existence, so there's no question of mistreatment." Lia replied. Austin laughed loud this time, "it's weird enough that you walked up to me that day and started all this celebrity-fan crap. Now you want me to play along with it?" "Admiring people doing cool things never hurt anyone." Lia pointed out. "I'm a pub magician, Lia. I do that for a living because there's nothing else I'm useful for." Austin told her, "let's be real here, for once." Lia had to stop joking around, because Austin did seem serious. But still, she couldn't just tell him that she didn't stick around this long because she just liked all the cool magic tricks he did. Lia didn't have a huge expectation from life. Talking to Austin Wright from time to time was way over her expectations. She didn't want to ruin what she had now by wanting too much, so she just kept silent. Austin Wright might only be a pub magician, but every girl in this street would give anything to be with him. And no matter how she looked at it, she was a nobody who didn't even fit his life.

The silence was getting awkward, so Lia decided to give him an answer, "I'm not doing anything that great with my life, so what you do is pretty amazing to me." Austin just laughed at that, "I'll never get you, Lia." Looking around a bit, he said, "Let's go down somewhere. It's cold and I'm starving." Lia quietly followed him. Lia saw him in a pub a few months back. He was amazing with his tricks. After the show she went to talk to him. Turned out small time celebrities were pretty nice to talk to. Austin Wright was just another average guy. Lia never talked to same random person twice, but she kept in touch with Austin. By the time she realized that she too, like every other girl around him, had fallen for him, there was no way for her to "unlove" him. She thought it was a crush at first, but with time, she knew that it wasn't. Austin had given her some space beside himself, and now she wanted it all.

"You haven't told me anything about yourself yet, you know." Austin interrupted Lia's thoughts. "About me… let's see." Lia gave it a thought if there was anything worth telling, "I go to the school nearby. No family, a few friends and no plans for future." Austin smiled, "Plans don't ever go right. It's better to just make them along the way." Lia laughed, "I don't think I'll ever really have a future. It's fine as long as I'm breathing happily." Austin shook his head, "You say weird stuff."

"Which school do you go to?" Austin asked again, "I didn't know there was any school near this place." Before Lia could say anything, he started talking again, "Don't tell me it's the boarding school here?" Lia nodded in approval. "Then how are you here? I didn't know they let their students out." Lia watched Austin speak as he tried to cool down the hot noodles in his mouth. It was funny to some extent. "I sneak out from time to time." She replied, "They don't keep that strict a count for the students from the orphanages."

It started to rain outside as the two of them sat together inside the street shop. The rain drops on the fabric roof was loud, but Lia loved the noise. It felt like so festive. "Did you eat?" Austin asked. "Yea…" her voice slimmed down. "You need to eat at the least, Lia." Austin said softly. Lia wanted to protest, but there was no point in lying. She didn't like to lie, and she already had to lie enough without trying. Austin called took the empty plate in front of her and poured half of his noodles in it. Lia had to laugh, "No offense Mr. celebrity, but you're not the one to be sharing your food around with people. You need to eat too." "Are you implying I'm poor?" Austin asked, smiling back at her. "I'm implying none of us should be worrying about other people." She replied. "Just eat." Austin said, concentrating back on his food. Lia transferred some of the noodles back on his plate and started eating. Seeing Austin looking at her for explanation, she shrugged, "What? I'll get fat if I eat that much. I'm already pretty spherical." Austin stared at her for a while, then looked down without saying anything. "Don't give me looks and then not say anything!" Lia snapped back. Without looking up, Austin said, "Don't talk anymore, I'll kiss you."

The two of them didn't talk the rest of the way.


	2. Chapter 2

Lia woke up to the sound of the wind chimes on her window. She got them as a gift when she moved in to the academy residence. It was pretty costly, but the school managed to make her mentor agree to pay for her. She heard that she got really lucky, because her mentor was one of the richest person in the country. She never met him though. Only his assistant came over to let her know that he was away on some kind of business, and couldn't meet her. She wanted to believe that it was true, and her mentor was a nice person who helped distressed people. But she couldn't ignore it everyone around her kept saying that Aaron Blake put up a good show, funding a refuges education in one of the top academies and all. That no one's gone that far for charity yet, and that he must have humongous properties to be able to do that only for a charity show. They always tried to keep it low though, whispering and all. Sometimes Lia just felt like shouting at them, "I can hear you!"-but she never does. Truth was, she hated being the "distressed people". She hated that she had a mentor. She hated that someone she didn't even know had to pay for her living. And she hated that she couldn't even refuse it.

After waking up, Lia tried going back to sleep for a while, only to realize that she couldn't. So she just got up and decided to take a walk. Winter was almost here, but the cold wasn't intense. It felt pretty nice against her skin as she walked down the hallway. Turning the first corner, she saw a shadow. She hardly ever talked to anyone in the school, so she thought she should keep walking. If someone really was there, they wouldn't probably bother with her, she was almost nonexistent to the people here. Walking a little further ahead, she found nobody. Letting out the huge sigh of relief to celebrate her not-running-into-anyone, she sat down. The moon was beautiful. The whole school looked beautiful being flooded with the moonlight.

"Who is that?"

Lia turned around at the other voice. There was a faint shadow, barely visible, hanging in the air behind her. She'd have screamed, but somehow no sound came out. There was an immense pressure on her, making it hard to breath for her. "Are you doing this?" Lia managed to ask. The first thing she noticed about the guy who was materializing in front of him were his grey eyes. They were sharp enough to her feel like it was piercing through her clean. He seemed shocked, "Lia?"

(Few years back)

After another random conversation with Austin in another random evening, he walked Lia to the walls of her school. Lately, their conversations have turned somewhat sad. They hardly said anything, but there was always an uneasy interaction going on between them. Lia had been wandering if she should, or rather, could ask what was wrong. Before saying goodbye, Lia decided to give it a try. If he didn't want to talk about it, she wouldn't push. If he hated her for thinking she could intrude his personal space, she'd have to bear with it. It's not like they were going to stay the rest of eternity together. "You seem upset now a days, Austin." She brought it up just as Austin going to say goodbye. He stopped in the middle of his words. Lia regretted asking, but she's already brought it up, might as well go all the way, "Is something wrong? I won't be any help anyway, but it's been weeks. You seem like you're shutting yourself down little by little." Austin didn't say anything for a few seconds. When finally spoke up, his voice was barely audible, "Let's not see each other anymore."

Lia was preparing for a harsh reminder that she should know her place, but not seeing each other was still too much of a shock for her. "That's fine," she managed to say, she wasn't going to break down in front of him. "But as we won't be seeing each other anyway, I guess telling me what's upsetting you so much won't hurt. I can't see you like this in front of me and ignore it, can I?" She was going through everything in her head to keep her cool, to not let him know. Austin sighed, "You should know what not to ask for, Lia." "No, it'll bug me." Lia tried to lighten the mood now, hoping that it should help him not notice. "You're going to regret this." Lia laughed, "Try me." Austin gave up, he had to smile too, but it somehow seemed sad, "I've never really asked much of life. I didn't go to school because I thought I'd never regret it. I've been thinking lately that if that was a wrong decision." Lia knew Austin didn't have parents. He ran away from his orphanage when he was 10, and started living on his own. He's did say that he wanted to fun things once in a while too, things he couldn't do even if he wanted to. But he's never said he regretted his decisions. "What makes you doubt your decisions now, after all this time?" Austin laughed again, "I hadn't met someone who skips her meals every time her orphanage forgets to send her money, and then say they're getting fat." "I am getting fat though." Lia protested. "See what I mean?" Austin told her. Lia didn't want this conversation again, so she asked, "What does that have to do with you regretting your decisions? You want to live a better life seeing my pathetic one?" "Oh my God, Lia! Aren't you thick?" Austin exclaimed now, "I'm saying it hurts me that I can't ask you to be with me, because I barely living my life, and I don't want you in this crazy ride with me." Lia hardly understood what he was saying, "What do you mean you don't want me in the crazy ride with you?" Austin shook his head in desperation, "It's nothing, just go back in. I'm sorry for even bringing this up." Lia had to know. "No, I'm just a little confused here, Austin. You're not really making a lot of sense right now, you know. What ride? What hurts you? And why can't I be in on it with you?" Austin started laughing, "It takes me a month to confess to you, just before I'm about to leave you, and all that you notice is the ride?" This was getting too confusing for Lia, "Confess? To me? For what? What did you do?" Austin was shocked this time. He knew Lia was an airhead in some cases, but he didn't expect it to be this severe. "Do I have to kiss you to make you understand what just happened was my confession to Lia Brown? Or would you just shut up like you did that day?" "Wait, you like me?" Lia looked stupefied. The whole goodbye thing had disappeared. Austin could do all the bidding farewell later, right now he had to make this thick brained girl understand that he was in love with her.

"Yeah. Was that too much of a shock?"

"Kind of."

"Why? We've been hanging out for months, wasn't this expected? You should've kept more distance if you didn't want this."

"It would've been expected if he girl wasn't me, and the guy wasn't you."

"That's why I said we should stop seeing each other. I don't do 'I do love you, but let's just stay friends' crap."

Lia laughed. Austin smiled too, "This seems funny to you? I've been killing myself thinking about it though." Lia shook her head, "It's not that. You don't realize that everyone would give anything to be with you, do you? Even guys, I think. I'm barely an existence among all those people. That's why it was a shock." "And you do realize that none of that actually matters, don't you?" Austin asked back, "I'm not all that you make me into. In the end, I'm just a guy who can't even ask you out because his life is such a mess." Lia smiled, "My heads a mess now thanks to him. Before I say anything weird, I'll send you back now. And don't you dare "not see" me anymore. And I don't know how to worry about some distant future that's not even here. I'm here with you now, and I want to be. So stop worrying about stuff that's not happened yet." Lia started pushing Austin back the way they came from, Austin trying to look at her over his shoulders, "Was that a yes?" Lia pushed him back into the alley and started walking back to her school walls, "That was me refusing to miss out on your crazy ride."


	3. Chapter 3

The pressure on Lia disappeared. She could breathe again. The guy in front of her materialized fully, he could probably be touched if Lia extended her hands. He walked up to her, still surprised. "You're Lia, right? Lia White." Lia wasn't a "White", rather "Brown", but she decided not to argue for now. He didn't seem too friendly. "You know me?" she asked back. "Know you? Why? You don't recognise me?" Lia tried to be cautious. After all, someone did scrape her alece clean for whatever reason they had. "Sorry, I lost my memories." The news struck him harder than Lia thought it would. His face was pale. "You don't remember? Anything? Anything at all?" Lia shook her head, "Nothing." He suddenly grabbed her hand. Lia was getting scared now, he was acting hysterical. "What are you doing?" she tried to take her hand back. But his grip was string. His hands were surprisingly cold, Lia noticed. "Didn't you talk to the doctor? They can get back your memories from your alece now, you know." Before Lia knew it, he was pulling out something out of her hands, and it was excruciatingly painful. She managed to say, "my alece…it was wiped clean." He looked up at her with horror in his face, "no, no, no… this can't happen, once was enough. I can't be going through this a second time. You can't do this to me, Lia." He looked like he was going to break apart. Despite the pain as he started pulling the ribbon, Lia felt a tad bit sorry for him. Then, she fainted.

When Lia woke up the guy was sitting down beside her with the ribbon in his hand. It was transparent. He looked like he had given up. "I'm sorry." He told her, "I shouldn't have made you go through that. But why? How could someone do that?" Lia sat up, "I don't know. Did you know me?" He sighed, "I think I did, but everything's so confusing right now. I have been looking for you for a while now." Which was equally good and bad a news for her. Of course the fact that someone knew her was a relief, but that someone being him was scary. "You said you think you did. Are you not sure?" "I…"he hesitated before answering, "I don't know what's wrong with me. I've been floating around like this for months now. My memories are a mess. They're there, but it's all so jumbled up that it's hard to find one specific memory. And it hurts so bad every time I try to remember something that I faint. I even found my body, apparently it's in coma, but I can't access it. It's rejecting me." Lia sighed. There's only one person who knows her, and even he can't remember her. The thought disturbed her. Instead of feeling sorry, she was only thinking of her benefits. "Was I selfish?" she suddenly asked. The guy laughed, "Yes you were. Self-centred would be a better word though."


End file.
